West Seattleite Bill Schrier joins SPD as interim Chief Info Officer

Just announced via SPD BlotterBill Schrier, the West Seattleite who served as the city’s Chief Technology Officer until 2012, is back with the city, at least temporarily, as interim Chief Information Officer for Seattle Police. From the announcement:

As CIO, Schrier will lead the department’s efforts to bolster SPD’s information technology programs and services. He will be a part of the leadership team that will continue to fulfill Mayor Ed Murray and Chief Kathleen O’Toole’s vision that the SPD should be “second to none” when it comes to how the Department uses technology to support its officers and provides for the safety and security of the Seattle community.

As we noted when Schrier left his previous city role, much of the information we report here comes from government data – so these types of roles in particular are vital to increased transparency. We have long asked in particular for more police-report narratives to be made available, and more often – right now, only a tiny percentage of them get published online, and only in a few crime categories, because they generally have to be redacted by hand first, and that is labor-intensive. They’ve been working on ways to automate that process (as well as the much-more-publicized process of making body-cam video available), so we’re hopeful of a breakthrough. Back to today’s announcement: Schrier succeeds Greg Russell, a former Amazon exec, who left the CIO job after less than a year.

9 Replies to "West Seattleite Bill Schrier joins SPD as interim Chief Info Officer"

  • westseattledood September 16, 2015 (4:30 pm)

    Congratulations Mr. Schrier. Thank you for serving the city again! SPD is fortunate to have you step in. Looks like a great fit to me!

  • LincolnPark September 16, 2015 (6:53 pm)

    Bill Schrier was my professor for one of my IT classes at Seattle Univ when I got my masters degree. Great smart guy. SPD is fortunate

  • Bill Schrier September 16, 2015 (6:58 pm)

    Thanks for the article, Tracey, and the comment westseattledrood. Better transparency on reports, while protecting privacy, is definitely on the agenda.
    -bill

  • LAintheJunction September 16, 2015 (7:15 pm)

    Welcome back, Bill! So glad to see you in this role for SPD. Hooray for transparency, indeed! We are in good hands.

  • joe September 16, 2015 (7:49 pm)

    Perfect fit with his experience running IT for the City of Seattle, combined with his early background in policing.

  • Junctionite September 16, 2015 (9:08 pm)

    Congratulations! The City could also use smart, sensible advice on its planned IT consolidation. Seems like a lot of the details related to this large organizational change need a more bottom up, pragmatic approach.

  • cc September 16, 2015 (9:29 pm)

    We need a non law enforcement person in this role if we are every going to get true transparency or protection of privacy from SPD.

  • wscommuter September 17, 2015 (9:27 am)

    @cc … can you explain that? Not following your train of thought. Why only a “non LE” person can provide “true transparency or protection of privacy from SPD”? Curious to understand your point.

  • J September 17, 2015 (10:44 am)

    Not exactly sure what “law enforcement person” means exactly. It’s a civilian position, it’s only ever been a non law enforcement person.

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